DALEVILLE, Va. \u2013 Residents of Botetourt County gathered for the first community meeting since Google officially announced plans to build a data center in the area, filling the room to review facts and map out a path forward.<\/p>\n
The meeting\u2019s goal was to spread the word and inform the public. Topics included the project timeline, the amount of money involved, a statewide sales tax exemption for data centers, and concerns about light and noise emissions. Residents also raised issues about the facility\u2019s proximity to a school, a perceived lack of transparency from the county\u2019s Board of Supervisors, and how much water and electricity the campus would consume.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe masses need to come out to the next meeting and future meetings to help prevent this Google data center from coming into Botetourt County,\u201d said Pam Dotson, a Fincastle resident.<\/p>\n
Botetourt County resident and real estate agent Danny Goad said the community has been doing its homework.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing a whole lot of digging and some due diligence, engineering calculations, we\u2019ve been able to come up with a pretty good idea of what they\u2019re planning on,\u201d Goad said.<\/p>\n
Ben Verschoor, an organizer with the Southwest Data Center Transparency Alliance, encouraged residents who oppose the project to stay engaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not over until it\u2019s over,\u201d Verschoor said. \u201cThey\u2019re not even through the permitting process yet, so one of the things that these kind of meetings do is let people know who are against it that they\u2019re not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
What comes next<\/p>\n
With the project still working through permitting, residents are weighing several strategies to slow or stop it. Some are discussing recalling members of the Board of Supervisors, while others are considering legal action to delay the project and its permits.<\/p>\n
One immediate strategy involves submitting public comments to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before a Thursday, April 9th deadline in an effort to block the agency\u2019s approval and ultimately delay the project. The data center is under a project titled \u201cProject Raspberry\u201d<\/a>. To submit a comment, residents can visit the Corps of Engineers\u2019 public notice page<\/a>, type \u201cRASP\u201d in the search box and fill out the comments form.<\/p>\n